The new regulations are in response to locals fearful of being priced out of their own neighborhoods.

Officials in other destinations in Spain including Valencia and Mallorca -- as well as in Venice, Italy -- have also introduced drastic measures to control overtourism and encourage responsible vacationing.

New rules

Madrid is a popular tourist destination, attracting crowds of visitors.

Courtesy DANI POZO/AFP/Getty Images

Proposed rules in Madrid will prevent apartments from being rented out to tourists for more than 90 days of the year -- and entire apartment blocks will no longer be able to be solely visitor accommodation, unless the building is licensed as a hotel.

Different restrictions will apply depending on which area of the city the apartments are in. Unsurprisingly, the more central you are, the more rules will be in place.

The city council has hit back at Airbnbs in the city center.

Courtesy Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Stringer/Getty Images

Airbnbs in the Central zone will need a designated entrance to the street, independent of the entrance used by permanent residents of the building.

This would eradicate the majority of apartments currently used as vacation rentals in the city and mark a drastic change for the city.

The city reports that 23 times more tourists sleep in the Central district of Madrid than in all the other 20 districts of Madrid put together.

"In the center [the crowding] was really bad," she tells CNN Travel. "Especially on super-narrow streets you had to walk so slow behind everyone."

Richards and her party joined long lines for St Mark's Campanile and the Basilica on St Mark's Square. Waiting for a boat to travel from the Venetian island of Murano to Burano, their line extended from the boat station back into a square, dominating the local landscape.

Venice can be quieter at night, when crowds have subsided.

Courtesy Faye Richards

"But if you were further away from the center there were lots of quiet areas and it was super nice. Also the crowds didn't last very long into the night, so nighttime was great to explore."

Richards says she didn't feel she was redirected away from locals -- but that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"My general impression of Venice is that there literally seemed to be no locals," she says. "They all live outside I'm pretty sure. Everything is for tourism."

Alternative solutions

Advocates say the best way to solve the mass tourism issue is to to encourage open dialogue.

Courtesy pexels

Advocates say the best way to solve the mass tourism issue is to listen to local people, vacationers and officials -- to encourage open dialogue.

"It's good to see destinations finally listening to residents and taking more control over how the tourism industry develops, working to avoid overtourism," Justin Francis, CEO and founder of Responsible Travel -- a self-described activist travel company -- tells CNN Travel.

"Airbnb has been somewhat of a poisoned chalice for many tourism destinations around the world," he says.

"At first, it seemed a hopeful tool for empowering local people -- opening up the accommodation market, creating pockets of opportunity in communities and spreading the benefits far wider than just large hotel corporations.

"It built itself as a disruptive business but I don't think we ever imagined it would be as disruptive for local people as it has turned out to be."

Francis praises the decision to listen to residents in Valencia and Madrid -- and advocates for a new approach, grounded in communication.

"If there's to be a responsible future for tourism in these cities then we have to put an end to the mentality of 'growth at all costs' and start measuring the success of tourism through the use of other indicators that are based much more firmly around the benefits to local communities."